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A superb love story from Anna Quindlen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, Blessings, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.

Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.

Praise for Still Life with Bread Crumbs

“There comes a moment in every novelist’s career when she . . . ventures into new territory, breaking free into a marriage of tone and style, of plot and characterization, that’s utterly her own. Anna Quindlen’s marvelous romantic comedy of manners is just such a book. . . . Taken as a whole, Quindlen’s writings represent a generous and moving interrogation of women’s experience across the lines of class and race. [Still Life with Bread Crumbs] proves all the more moving because of its light, sophisticated humor. Quindlen’s least overtly political novel, it packs perhaps the most serious punch. . . . Quindlen has delivered a novel that will have staying power all its own.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[A] wise tale about second chances, starting over, and going after what is most important in life.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[Anna] Quindlen’s seventh novel offers the literary equivalent of comfort food. . . . She still has her finger firmly planted on the pulse of her generation.”—NPR

“Enchanting . . . [The protagonist’s] photographs are celebrated for turning the ‘minutiae of women’s lives into unforgettable images,’ and Quindlen does the same here with her enveloping, sure-handed storytelling.”—People

“Charming . . . a hot cup of tea of a story, smooth and comforting about the vulnerabilities of growing older . . . a pleasure.”—USA Today

“With spare, elegant prose, [Quindlen] crafts a poignant glimpse into the inner life of an aging woman who discovers that reality contains much more color than her own celebrated black-and-white images.”—Library Journal

“Quindlen has always excelled at capturing telling details in a story, and she does so again in this quiet, powerful novel, showing the charged emotions that teem beneath the surface of daily life.”—Publishers Weekly

“Quindlen presents instantly recognizable characters who may be appealingly warm and nonthreatening, but that only serves to drive home her potent message that it’s never too late to embrace life’s second chances.”—Booklist

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Editorial Reviews

Rebecca Winter was once a famous photographer, and, with any luck, she will be again. Having achieved surprising early success with her feminist “Kitchen Counter” collection, Rebecca, now 60, finds herself on fame and fortune’s flip side. With her former torrent of royalties dwindling to a trickle, Rebecca has been forced to give up her perfect Manhattan apartment for a paltry upstate cabin, and with marauding raccoons, stray dogs, and trigger-happy hunters, life in the country is proving to be no walk in Central Park. Luckily, Rebecca still has her camera, and she soon finds inspiration for new work in unexpected places, often in the company of a bird-watching roofer named Jim, whose quiet companionship proves to be just the balm she needs to fully embrace her unfamiliar surroundings. A Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and star in the pantheon of domestic fiction (Every Last One, 2010), Quindlen presents instantly recognizable characters who may be appealingly warm and nonthreatening, but that only serves to drive home her potent message that it’s never too late to embrace life’s second chances.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Quindlen will hit the road with her latest novel, backed by a mammoth media promotional campaign. --Carol Haggas

Review

“There comes a moment in every novelist’s career when she . . . ventures into new territory, breaking free into a marriage of tone and style, of plot and characterization, that’s utterly her own. Anna Quindlen’s marvelous romantic comedy of manners is just such a book. . . . Taken as a whole, Quindlen’s writings represent a generous and moving interrogation of women’s experience across the lines of class and race. [Still Life with Bread Crumbs] proves all the more moving because of its light, sophisticated humor. Quindlen’s least overtly political novel, it packs perhaps the most serious punch. . . . Quindlen has delivered a novel that will have staying power all its own.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[A] wise tale about second chances, starting over, and going after what is most important in life.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[Anna] Quindlen’s seventh novel offers the literary equivalent of comfort food. . . . She still has her finger firmly planted on the pulse of her generation.”—NPR

“Enchanting . . . [The protagonist’s] photographs are celebrated for turning the ‘minutiae of women’s lives into unforgettable images,’ and Quindlen does the same here with her enveloping, sure-handed storytelling.”—People

“Charming . . . a hot cup of tea of a story, smooth and comforting about the vulnerabilities of growing older . . . a pleasure.”—USA Today

“Quindlen has made a home at the top of the bestsellers lists with novels that capture the grace and frailty of everyday life, and her latest work is sure to take her there again. With spare, elegant prose, she crafts a poignant glimpse into the inner life of an aging woman who discovers that reality contains much more color than her own celebrated black-and-white images.”—Library Journal

“Quindlen has always excelled at capturing telling details in a story, and she does so again in this quiet, powerful novel, showing the charged emotions that teem beneath the surface of daily life.”—Publishers Weekly

“A Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and star in the pantheon of domestic fiction (Every Last One, 2010), Quindlen presents instantly recognizable characters who may be appealingly warm and nonthreatening, but that only serves to drive home her potent message that it’s never too late to embrace life’s second chances.”—Booklist

More About the Author

Anna Quindlen is the author of three bestselling novels, Object Lessons, One True Thing and Black and Blue, and three non-fiction books, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud and A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Her New York Times column 'Public and Private' won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. She is currently a columnist for Newsweek and lives with her husband and children in New York.

At 60 and divorced, Rebecca Winter, the well known photographer and lifelong New Yorker, is still a famous name, but her works are no longer bringing in the money they once did. Money she needs now to provide elder care for her parents. So she sublet her New York apartment and has just moved into a "fully furnished" cottage that's turned out to be nowhere near the gem its ad had alleged it to be. What's more, it's on a street that has no name, it's got a raccoon in its attic, only four forks in its silverware drawer and nary a single electric outlet in its bedroom. Not so hot a spot for starting over, it would seem. But fate seems to have other ideas.

As a reader with a table-high stack of books waiting to be read, I can't believe that what I did after getting to the end of this book, was to go straight back to the beginning and start over. I don't think I've ever done that with a book before. Sure, I re-visit my Jane Austens from time to time, but I've never before liked a book so much and gotten so involved with its characters that I went straight from the end right back to the beginning. Bravo and thank you, Anna Quindlen.

By the way, "Still Life With Bread Crumbs" is the title of Rebecca's most famous and best-selling photo.

Addenda 1/29/14: I've just read a really interesting interview with the author in today's Washington Post and am posting a link in the comment below.

Anna Quindlen is an outstanding author and when I saw she had written something new, I knew I had to read it. I am so glad I did, it did not disappoint. I found myself wanting more but satisfied with what I got.

To begin with, Rebecca Winter, the person this whole story is about, is 60 years old. I mean a bright, youthful, intelligent and healthy 60 years old. That to me is such a refreshing change, rather than a grandmotherly, aging, overweight and sickly 60 years old. So I was wonderfully pleased with that immediately. Beyond the fact of age, Rebecca is a very engaging woman, a rather famous photographer who has been successful in her life. Yet, she has come to a crossroads, where the money isn't flowing in any more and she looks for a change.

Rebecca rents a cabin in the woods that she found on the internet. So site unseen she moves in to this cabin and begins on a new and very different way of living than she has ever experienced. Many people become part of her life. One young roofer in particular, Jim Bates. Thus begins a very touching and realistic love story.

This is not only a love story though. It is about a woman re-inventing herself and finding peace with her aging parents, son and most of all herself.

I had never read an Anna Quindlen novel prior to 'Still Life with Bread Crumbs'. But the premise and the mostly glowing reviews, convinced me to give Ms. Quindlen's novel a try. I'm always excited when I discover a new author I like. However, now I'm not at all sure I will try any of her other novels.

I found some of the descriptive passages in this book to be almost poetic. I always enjoy a writer who can make me see what she sees. And since I am sixty years old and am in the process of 'remaking' myself after retiring from a career of 27 years, this book should have resonated with me. It did not. I felt as if I was reading a first draft, that the author had wanted to get all the bare bones of the story down quickly so she could come back and flesh out the scenes later. There was so much potential to plumb with various relationships in Rebecca Winter's life. However, I felt the author spent way too much time going over and over all the ways Ms. Winter's snobby husband had scarred her and not enough time showing the relationships blooming in her new life. I found Ms. Quindlen's habit of foreshadowing future information with 'more about that later' and of cramming additional information in parentheses particularly annoying. These only serve to jerk a reader out of the story, much like someone talking to you when you are trying to watch a movie.

I feel the bones of a good book are here. But depth of character is not and if I am not emotionally invested in the characters, no amount of artful description is enough to make me like a book.

I really enjoyed this new book by accomplished writer Anna Quindlen. It is a delightful book that is both a good story and well written.

Charming, eccentric and talented, photographer Rebecca Winter held a place of esteem in the New York City art world, until she didn't. At sixty, divorced and responsible for the care of her aging parents, Rebecca seemed to be heading on the fast track to nowhere. Expenses mounting, she decided to rent out her lovely Manhattan apartment and move to a rustic cabin a couple of hours out into the country. She hoped to save money and possibly come up with artistic inspiration.

Anna Quindlen has drawn a marvelously complex character in Rebecca - a success story trying to doge her downfall. Away from the city, Rebecca begins to discover aspects of life that are far different from her prior experience - such as a raccoon living in the attic that must be removed and destroyed. Why destroyed? As the roofer, Jim Bales, explained to her, raccoons will return to their old hiding spots and her attic was perfect. It seemed that he was a font of information of the kind that artsy city dwellers rarely had need to use. He was also doing a study of birds for the Audubon Society and hired her to do photography for the study. That he was also helpful and good-looking was an added attraction.

This would be an excellent book club selection with its variety of characters and the contrasts between rural and city life and life outlook. I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys women's fiction.